Happy New Year! May you all have good health, good memories, and a fantastic year. Since Kyle comes home tomorrow I feel we are getting started on a great year. Our next story that was first posted on UCP Steptember is the following: Article 14 “The Minnis Menagerie” The program working its magic: Kyle was being put through the motions of crawling or creeping eight times a day. When Kyle was little it took five of us to do the retraining of the brain for crawling, and eventually advancing to creeping. As he grew, it took three to five of us to put him through the motions depending on what we were attempting to achieve. The therapist would tell us what to look for as his brain development progressed. It is impossible to explain every achievement, there were many. One that stands out is “prehensile grasp”. What age did your child pinch corn on his plate? Kyle had never reached that particular stage of development. As we did the program, we were to watch for it… Most parents get thrilled and run for the camera when a child starts to turn over, walk, etc. When Kyle first pinched peas on his high chair tray, I was in the kitchen doing my happy dance because my 3+ year old son showed signs of “prehensile grasp”, in short, brain development. We were progressing; and, the progress just kept coming. The program was so extensive and rewarding. I figure the pictures tell it better than I ever could. Keep in mind there were sixteen twenty to twenty-five-minute sets; one hundred masks, and eight creep and crawling sets each day for seven days. Not to mention that we got up early to do nerve stimulation before the volunteers arrived; and, Jim and I had to put Kyle in a sleep position every two hours at night. Jim would put him in a sleep position when he went to bed, I was a night owl and put him in a sleep position when I went to bed; and, I set the alarm for Jim for two hours later, then he set it for me two hours after that. You get the idea... Picture 1: Picture 1 is Kyle waiting on top of the padded table for the volunteers to put him through a five minute repetitive motion for creeping. When we first started, we did the crawling motion. Crawling is on the belly with right leg and right arm moving together, then the left leg and left arm. The head was moved accordingly. Creeping was done by moving the left arm with the right leg and the right arm with the left leg. Then Kyle was placed on the floor to repeat the motions himself for three to five minutes, depending on his progress. Picture 2: Kyle being put through the motions. Picture 3: A rolling pattern. Lifting the leg so the knee touches the opposite side on the carpet. Picture 4: Overhead ladder. (Sorry I do not have a picture of the Brachiating ladder, which was first, it was a high ladder which took three people to put him through the motions. We had one person on each arm and one person holding his hips. They would have to pry open his hands, place on the rug of the ladder while the person holding his hips rotated in unison with the arm movement.) The overhead ladder was using the same motion only his feet were on the ground. In this picture, he had advanced to opening his own hands and the person on his hips helped rotate him to keep his feet in place. The high ladder had each rung painted every color you could think of. This is how we taught him his colors. In addition, to get him to want to do this we put raisins on each rung were his hand would go. His healthy snack! Picture 5: More overhead ladder work. He could now move his own feet. Picture 6: He was starting to be able to do most of it himself. Picture 7: Now sporting a backpack. Picture 8: Kyle walking with a leg divider to prevent his legs from scissoring. Facebook did not post these four pictures, they will follow as soon as possible: Picture 9: Suspended Inverted Rotation. Using gravity to help, not hinder Kyle. When he was upside down, he could kick a ball, he would open his hands, we would use his body weight to stretch his inner thigh muscles. He also did his math flash cards when he was upside down. We also twisted him and let him spin; thereby, helping develop his sense of balance. Picture 10: Kyle getting ready to twist... Picture 11: Kyle going up an incline ladder. Blair and a neighbors boy were helping with his feet. This was hard for Kyle. Lifting his legs took help. A volunteer is helping with his hands. We told him this was how the firefighters went up their rescue ladders! Picture 12: THE SPRINGS: Wow, this was exciting. It is hard to explain. This was the first time Kyle was in an upright position and his hands were free. It was like watching a baby discover his hands. He looked at his hands, took off hoping, went to the window seal, and knocked off everything we had placed there. He turned around and giggled. It was too fun. The volunteers and I were so excited we did not care. He could do many things with the springs. We could only leave him in them 16 times a day for 5 minutes. We miss the SPRINGS! To be continued…
Posted on: Fri, 02 Jan 2015 03:51:59 +0000
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